Russellville city officials have reached a settlement in the 2010 lawsuit filed by ousted Human Resources Director Catherine Leapheart.

At a settlement conference Tuesday in Little Rock, the suit was settled for $67,500, City Attorney Trey Smith said. The city won’t have any out-of-pocket expense, however — the Arkansas Municipal League will pay the settlement in full.

The city did not admit to discrimination or wrongful termination in the agreement, Smith said.

“There’s no acknowledgment of wrongdoing,” he said. “It was simply a decision to put a case from a previous administration to rest and to free up current and past city employees, witnesses, officers and officials and move forward.”

Leapheart, 70, filed a suit against the city in December 2010, seeking lost back and future pay and benefits, attorneys’ fees and costs and punitive damages in an unspecified amount in excess of $75,000.

Eaton currently serves as mayor, and Harris and Steuber are the only aldermen currently serving on the City Council.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by North Little Rock attorney Morgan E. “Chip” Welch, attorneys allege aldermen, after moving to eliminate Leapheart’s job, “expressed their desire to hire (a specific,) younger white male applicant for the position” and promised Williamson “that if he would let them hire the white male, then they would allow the Mayor to hire the assistant of his choice in exchange.”

Leapheart, who is black, was hired by Williamson two days before aldermen met in a rare Sunday session and eliminated her post, creating a new human resources position under the control of the council. Williamson vetoed the ordinance, but aldermen voted to override his interdict.

The city defendants, represented by North Little Rock attorney John L. Wilkerson, assert in a pretrial disclosure filed Monday that on March 7, 2010, when aldermen eliminated her position, the City Council members were not aware Williamson had hired Leapheart on March 5, 2010.